4TB SSD Roundup: All 4 TB+ Solid State Drives

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If you work with storage-heavy apps or simply want quick access to your complete Steam library, there is really no substitute for a high-capacity SSD. For now, four terabytes is the largest amount of SSD storage space you can find in the consumer market. And even then, availability is somewhat limited.

From the manufacturers’ perspective, building SSDs in even higher capacities is not really an engineering problem (at least in the 2.5″ and Add-in Card form factors). The major stopping block is the high cost for end-users. This is why we mainly see really large capacities in the enterprise market. However, the cost of Flash memory has been dropping for some time. And thanks to the arrival of cheaper chips in the form of TLC (triple-level cell) and QLC (quad-level cell) NAND, it’s now easier than before to justify investing in larger capacities.

Here, we’ve rounded up every 4TB SSD we could find as of May 2020. As of now, however, only a few manufacturers build 4TB or larger drives for consumers. Most are in the 2.5-inch SATA or external form factors, but there are also a few others. The list of PCIe/NVMe M.2 SSDs with this capacity is very easy to manage as it consists of just two drives at this time – and both are from the same manufacturer:

4TB M.2 NVMe SSDs

1. Sabrent Rocket

Sabrent’s Rocket SSDs are top sellers in the U.S. market as they seem to strike a good balance between performance and value. The Rocket naming is used for several different SSDs, ranging from affordable QLC-based (explained below) units up to really fast PCIe Gen 4 models.

This high-capacity option uses the PCIe Gen 3 interface, so it’s not quite as fast as the most recent PCIe Gen 4 drives (which are currently only supported by the latest AMD platforms X570 and TRX40). Like the other capacities, the four-terabyte Sabrent Rocket uses 3D TLC NAND memory chips and a Phison E12 controller. It offers sequential read/write speeds of up to 3,450 MB/s (read) and 3,000 MB/s (write) and comes in the standard 2280 M.2 form factor.

2. Sabrent Rocket Q

At the time of writing (May 2020), there is (oddly enough) only one alternative to the Sabrent Rocket if you are looking for a roomy 4TB NVMe SSD: The Sabrent Rocket Q. This variety of the Rocket comes with the very similar Phison E12S controller, but instead of TLC (triple-level cell) NAND, it’s equipped with more affordable QLC (quad-level cell) NAND memory chips. This will shave about $100 off the cost of a 4TB drive.

Compared to the above non-Q Sabrent Rocket, the Rocket Q’s sequential read/write speeds are a bit lower at up to 3,200 MB/s (read) and 2,000 MB/s (write). We have tested the 1TB Rocket Q and noted that it performs better than other SSDs of the same type, i.e. the Intel 660p/665p and Crucial P1 (both of which also use QLC NAND).

4TB 2.5″ SATA SSDs: Samsung and WD

If you are looking for lots of fast internal storage space at a more reasonable cost, there is more competition – at lower prices per GB – in the 2.5-inch SATA segment. For quite some time Samsung was the only manufacturer with 4TB consumer SSDs in the market, but as of 2020, Western Digital/SanDisk is also offering high-capacity alternatives. Here’s how Samsung’s 860 lineup compares.

More recent NAND allows for storing additional bits per cell, with the drawbacks of reduced endurance and performance.

Samsung’s 860-series SSDs stand out in that none of them use the same type of Flash memory. The 860 QVO uses quad-level cell (QLC) NAND chips, the 860 EVO uses triple-level cell (TLC) NAND, and finally the Samsung 860 PRO is one of the increasingly rare type of SSDs that still use multi-level cell (MLC) NAND.

MLC – as found in the 860 PRO – is the oldest variation of NAND in this case, but is still the superior technology in terms of performance and endurance. MLC is followed by the newer and denser TLC type (860 EVO), which is somewhat slower and less durable. The most modern and least durable type today is QLC (860 QVO).

Additional bits in every cell increases the number of charge states in each transistor. This makes them more prone to voltage drift and other issues that need to be corrected, which is a reason why high-density NAND doesn’t perform as well.

Of course, the newer memory types are not without advantages. The main one is that the higher densities allow for lower production costs. And as for performance, the difference is quite small as long as you are on the bandwidth-limited SATA bus. So, modern QLC SATA drives can definitely compete with the older technologies unless you plan on putting the drive through extremely heavy duties.

In other words, due to the heavy price premium, we would only recommend the 860 PRO to the most demanding users who constantly work with large amounts of data or use the drive in a busy server. Almost every other user will be perfectly happy with the performance of the 860 EVO or QVO.

The 2.5″ Competiton: WD/SanDisk

A few months into 2020, Western Digital and its subsidiary SanDisk also started offering a range of 4TB SSDs in the well-known WD Red, WD Blue, and SanDisk Ultra lineups. As usual, the WD Red targets NAS builders, while WD Blue represents the value segment. The 4TB SanDisk Ultra 3D likely follows the same pattern as the other capacities, meaning that it’s essentially a WD Blue with a different sticker.

Other then the SanDisk and WD Blue being identical in all but name, the NAS-oriented WD Red SA500 also shares many of its specs with the other drives in the trio. All three of these drives use a Marvell 88SS1074 controller combined with 64-layer (3D) TLC memory chips from SanDisk.

The WD Red stands out by being optimized for NAS use, which is reflected in its endurance rating at 2,500 TBW compared to 600 TBW in the WD Blue and SanDisk Ultra. This is likely due to a larger amount of spare capacity (overprovisioning in SSD terms) that will allow it to last considerably longer.

A Quick Look at Endurance Ratings

As you may have noticed from the specs, the main differentiator in the different 2.5″ SATA price brackets is not so much performance as it is endurance measured in terabytes written (TBW). For the vast majority of users, this is not a major concern, since none of the drives listed above are likely to wear out before all other parts of the computer are on the scrap heap.

The endurance issue is also compensated by the capacity of a 4TB SSD. Few users will never come close to, for example, the 1,440 TB of writes that Samsung guarantees for the 860 QVO writes ever – and even less so during the warranty period.

So the main drawback with the QVO is the limited 3-year warranty, compared to the 5-year warranty offered with the competitors (even the WD Blue, which has a lower endurance rating).

External 4TB SSDs

If you just want lots of really fast storage to go – in a compact form factor – you actually have quite a few options. Unlike hard drives, solid state drives are not limited by the size of spinning platters, only on how the manufacturers decide to arrange the memory chips and layout of the PCB. Oddly enough, storage giants like SanDisk and Samsung don’t offer 4TB or larger drives in their well-known Extreme and T5/T3 ranges. Instead, several smaller manufacturers have found a niche here.

One thing to keep in mind when shopping for an external SSD is rated performance. What you really need to avoid is ending up with a glorified thumb drive that’s barely faster than a mechanical hard drive. The best-performing drives use either the USB 3.1 Gen2 or Thunderbolt interfaces. Here are some of the leading models right now.

Out of these three best-selling 4TB external drives, it’s clear that the Glyph Atom RAID SSD is the best-performing option. It actually consists of two smaller M.2 drives in a RAID 0 array, which nearly doubles transfer rates compared to a single drive. It is also ‘Thunderbolt 3 compatible’, meaning that it should play well with recent MacBook Pros.

However, it doesn’t use an actual, full-featured Thunderbolt 3 interface, and neither does Oyen Digital’s U32 Shadow. Both utilize the USB-C 3.1 Gen2 interface, which has a maximum bandwidth of 10 Gbps. This is also true for the VectoTech Rapid, which offers about the same performance as the U32 (approximately SATA 6 Gbps speed).

Additional High-Capacity Options

There are also a few other high-capacity alternatives on the external SSD market:

Oyen Digital U32 Shadow Dura – This is, unsurprisingly, a close relative to the previously mentioned U32 Shadow from Oyen Digital. The difference is that it comes in a more durable rubber-enclosed case, making it shockproof and somewhat water-resistant. At least according to the manufacturer (we could find no IP-rating though). Check price >>

Oyen Digital MiniPro Dura – The MiniPro Dura also shares many features with the U32 Shadow (Dura) from the same manufacturer. This drive, however, is a bit larger (oddly enough, considering the name) and complies with the military-grade test MIL-STD-810G 516.6. The warranty is only one year instead of three, perhaps reflecting that it’s supposed to be used in the field. Check price >>

Oyen Digital SSD MiniPro RAID V3 – The MiniPro RAID is an enclosure that can be purchased separately or equipped with up to two 4TB Samsung 860 EVO SSDs. A total of 8 GB of fast storage space should be enough for most use cases. For the same reason, it’s much larger than most portable drives and requires external power. As the name implies, you can set up your drives in RAID for striping (performance) or mirroring (backup). There’s also a Dura version of this drive/enclosure. Check price >>

iStorage diskAshur PRO2 – If you value security higher than any other aspect, then – and only then – this might be the drive for you. It comes with a code lock and all the military-grade security certifications you can imagine. You also get AES-XTS 256-bit hardware encryption. Performance is not nearly as impressive at 148 MB/s (read) and 140 MB/s (write). Check price >>

BUSlink Disk-On-The-Go External Slim Portable – Last but not least, BUSlink offers external SSDs in sizes all the way up to 7.68 GB. In other words, they likely use enterprise SSDs from Samsung or Micron inside. The drive uses the USB 3.1 Gen2 interface, offering up to 10 Gbps of bandwidth. Unfortunately, BUSlink doesn’t provide any more detailed performance data. Check price >>

4TB+ Enterprise SSDs

If money is no object, or you happen to run a data center, it’s possible to buy SSDs in even higher capacities than 4TB, such as Samsung’s 30.72 TB PM1643. This monster will probably set you back around $12,000. Most enterprise drives are both very expensive and very durable, as they are intended for the server market.

Endurance in this market is usually measured in DWPD (drive writes per day) or petabytes written (PBW) instead of terabytes written (TBW). Enterprise SSDs are a bit outside of the scope for this article, but for the sake of perspective, we’ll take a brief look at a pair of interesting models.

What makes these SSDs somewhat interesting from a consumer/enthusiast perspective is that they can be used in an actual end-user machine and not just high-end servers. The Intel drive is a half-height PCI Express Add-in card, while the Micron 5200 ECO uses the common SATA interface (as opposed to SAS).

Moreover, both drives are built with mostly the same hardware as consumer models, most importantly 64-layer 3D TLC NAND. This keeps the prices in check (relatively speaking) versus extremely expensive alternatives such as eMLC. Drives that use SLC, or single-level cell memory, are the oldest and most durable SSDs of all, but they are almost impossible to find these days even in the enterprise space. The production cost has always been prohibitive. Current SSDs, however, often use an SLC-mode cache to speed up transfer rates.

Summary

Evolution of NAND Flash memory.

SSD prices have dropped at a steady pace, partly thanks to smaller production processes (in nanometers), but mostly thanks to additional bits per cell. However, the cost per GB is obviously still high compared to mechanical hard drives. For most PC builders today, the most cost-effective solution is still to combine a lower-capacity SSD with a slow conventional hard drive for backups and other files that are not frequently accessed.

On the other hand, some categories of users can definitely take advantage of a 4TB+ SSD. The fast transfer rates are an advantage for everyone working with large files. Photo-, video- and audio editing come to mind. But if the price was no object, we’d really like to store everything on SSDs.

The options are still few, but it’s 100% certain that we’ll see more high-capacity SSDs in the future, at even higher capacities than 4TB. And hopefully at reasonable prices, thanks to the proliferation of QLC NAND and other more efficient production processes.

As a PC gaming enthusiast since the 3dfx Voodoo era, Jesper has had time to experiment with a fair few FPS-improving PC parts over the years. His job at GPCB is to test and evaluate hardware, mainly focusing on GPUs and storage devices.

You forgot the OWC Express 4M2 NVMe, which offers true Thunderbolt 3 performance. You can bolt in four Sabrent 1TB Rocket NVMe PCIe M.2 SSDs and get a 4TB external drive with 2,883 MB/s read speeds for about $900. 😊

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